By Ankita Chandra
A sea of faces looking like your favourite animated characters, with the exact outfits, accessories and gait you associate with them. A dream crossover of scores of animated series coming together on one platform. That is the World Cosplay Summit for you. Held in Nagoya, Japan, the 2026 World Cosplay Summit saw a plethora of creatively styled character looks.
Held over three days, the grand showcase brought together cosplayers from 41 countries and regions. India has been part of this mega event for the last decade, and won big this season as well, clinching the award in the category Next Journey (A Team To Make Its Mark On The Global Stage). t2ONLINE caught up with Karan Desai and Karan Prakash, who represented India at this year’s World Cosplay Summit held in Japan.
How special has representing India for this year’s World Cosplay Summit been? Walk us through your preparation for the grand showcase.
Karan Desai: Representing India at the World Cosplay Summit is an incredible honor and a dream come true. We have spent months designing, 3D modeling, sewing, and testing every detail of our performance and costumes to present our best work on the international stage.
Karan Prakash: Quite exciting to be honest. Representing India at such a huge international stage is a high level of responsibility. Our entire cosplay community was behind us supporting and cheering for us. The preparation was intense with a lot of logistical planning, material shopping over multiple days and choreographing our performance. We basically pushed our cosplay making as well as performance skills for this.
How big a role do you think Cosplays have in bringing together like-minded fans?
Karan Desai: Cosplay is a universal language that connects people through shared passion and creativity. It builds friendships, encourages collaboration, and creates a welcoming community regardless of background.
Karan Prakash: I think cosplay is an excellent outlet to bring together fans of movies, anime, manga, comics, games etc. the shared passion of embodying our favourite character from these various mediums and the efforts to bring that to life creates an amazing experience that each cosplayer can relate to. This creates conversation and stories that that eventually draws people from different walks of life together.
An elaborate creative process goes behind the scenes of every outfit assembled for a cosplay. How amusing do you find this creative pursuit?
Karan Desai: The most rewarding part is bringing a fictional character to life through craftsmanship. Every costume is a chance to learn new skills, solve creative challenges, and push my limits as a maker.
Karan Prakash: Oh the process is the real fun part of cosplaying. The most fun times we have is when we plan and go cosplay material-shopping. It’s a fun social outing that’s dipped in creativity. Then comes the actual cosplay building experience which requires insane craftsmanship skills in sewing, 3D-modelling, designing. The satisfaction after everything comes together is just beautiful.
If you could choose only one character to keep cosplaying for every event, which would it be, and why?
Karan Desai: Yoshimitsu from Tekken would be my choice. His ever-evolving designs, intricate armor, and mysterious personality constantly inspire me to experiment with new techniques and ideas.
Karan Prakash: I doubt I would ever stick to one character but if I am challenged to pick one, it would be Dante from Devil May Cry. It’s about his personality. I relate deeply to it. His coolness is inspiring and his ever changing costumes and weapons across different games invites a lot of fun cosplay variations.
How important is the platform given by Comic Con India, for fandoms to celebrate their common love for animated genres in entertainment?
Karan Desai: Comic Con India has played a huge role in growing the cosplay community by giving fans a platform to showcase their work, meet fellow enthusiasts, and celebrate pop culture together. It has inspired many creators, including me, to pursue cosplay more seriously.
Karan Prakash: I got introduced to cosplay in my first comic con visit. Over the years I saw cosplayers, anime, games and movie lovers unite at comic con and share our love for characters and stories here. Now we have comic cons in every major city of India and many geeks, gamers, otakus and film.buffs get to visit this convention and form ever lasting friendships and communities. So I would say that comic con has played a major role in fostering fandom culture.
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